REPORT 


Committee  on  Terminal  Facilities 


NEW  YOE^K  AND  BROOKLYN  BRIDGE. 


T.  C.  CLARKJE.C  E.,  ^ 

*  '■'         •  -*i  Committee. 

JAMES  HOWELL,  President,  ) 


.^Broo^yi},  April  VZt^x,  1888. 


Press  of  Brooklyn  Eagle  Job  PjtcmNO  Dept. 


New  York  and  Brooklyn  Bridge, 


REPORT    OF    COMMITTEE    ON  TERMINAL 

FACILITIES. 

To  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  New  York  and  Brooklyn 
Bridge  : 

Gentlemen, — The  undersigned,  on  the  23d  of  Feb- 
ruary, received  from  the  Board  of  Experts  their  report 
on  the  enlargement  of  traffic  facilities  at  the  New  York 
terminus  of  the  Bridge.  This  Report,  which  you  have 
received,  is  a  very  careful  and  exhaustive  one,  worthy 
of  the  reputation  of  its  authors,  and  one  which  clears 
the  way  toward  arriving  at  definite  conclusions. 

The  Board  of  Experts  were  not  asked  to  estimate 
the  cost  of  the  improvements  recommended  by  them, 
and  immediately  upon  receiving  their  Report  the  Chief 
Engineer,  Mr.  Martin,  was  instructed  to  make  careful 
estimates  of  the  cost  of  lands,  buildings,  new  machin- 
ery and  cars,  necessary  to  apply  the  circulating  system 
as  designed  by  A.  M.  Wellington,  C.  E.,  to  both  ter- 
mini of  the  Bridge.  His  Report,  just  received,  gives 
the  cost  as  follows  : 


COST  OF  THE  WELLINGTON  CIRCULATING  SYSTEM  FOR 
EIGHT EEN-CAR  TRAINS. 


Description. 


Real  Estate  for  Stations. . . 
Real  Estate  for  Store  Yards 

Station  Buildings  

New  Plant  and  Machinery.  . 

loo  New  Cars  

Total  


New  York 
Terminus. 


fi.  797,750 


I,IOO,000 


Brooklyn 
Terminus. 


$456,500 
448,000 
I,  IOC, 000 


Total. 

^2,254,250 
448,000 
2,200,000 
475,000 
400,000 


,777,250 


This  is  a  very  large  sum,  and  one  which  it  might  be 
wise  to  expend,  so  far  as  it  would  go,  in  providing 
new  bridges  or  tunnels,  rather  than  to  expend  it 
upon  the  present  Bridge. 

The  attention  of  your  Committee  and  that  of  the 
Chief  Engineer  was  then  directed  to  see  how  the 
present  system  can  be  enlarged.  The  Board  of  Ex- 
perts in  their  report  (p.  10),  say:  "The  maximum 
capacity  of  the  Bridge  Railway  can  only  be  attained 
by  increasing  the  number  of  cars  per  train  to  the 
limit  most  desirable  in  actual  service  (which  experi- 
ence in  operating  them  alone  can  demonstrate),  and 
in  fixing  the  headway  intervals  as  short  as  absolute 
safety  requires  for  handling  trains  of  increasing  lengths." 
This  is  very  sound  advice,  and  acting  upon  it,  inves- 
tigations have  been  made,  which  show  that  it  is  im- 
practicable to  run  eighteen-car  trains  as  proposed  by 
Mr.  Wellington.  The  Chief  Engineer  considers,  and 
your  Committee  agree  with  him,    that  four-car  trains 


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are  about  as  long  as  can  be  safely  and  quickly 
handled. 

This  does  not  affect  the  adoption  of  the  circulating 
system  at  all,  for  that  is  merely  a  method  of  avoiding 
switches  and  an  adaptation  to  limited  space.  The  space 
in  Brooklyn  is  not  limited,  and  there  is  no  reason  why 
the  present  rectangular  system  with  tail  switching, 
modified  as  suggested  by  the  Chief  Engineer,  will  not 
answer  every  purpose  for  the  Brooklyn  terminus  for 
some  years  to  come. 

The  same  system  can  also  be  applied  to  the  New 
York  terminus,  and  no  encroachment  beyond  the  pres- 
ent lines  of  tracks  upon  Centre  street,  and  no  new  lands 
will  be  needed.  This  modification  of  the  present  sys- 
tem is  merely  to  add  two  more  tracks  parallel  to  the 
present  ones,  with  intermediate  platforms,  all  as  shown 
in  accompanying  drawings,  marked  : 

A,  proposed  New  York  terminus. 

B,  proposed  Brooklyn  terminus. 

A  double  set  of  rails  will  be  required  on  each  track, 
to  avoid  the  use  of  switches  for  incoming  trains,  and 
leave  the  tracks  unbroken.  Under  the  present  system 
the  capacity  of  the  Bridge  Railway  is  limited  by  the  time 
required  to  stop  trains,  unload  them,  switch  them  into 
place  and  reload  them,  which  is  eighty  seconds. 

But  if  two  trains  can  be  loaded  and  unloaded  simul- 
taneously, they  can  be  despatched  in  half  the  time  now 
required,  say  forty  seconds,  thus  doubling  the  present 
capacity  of  the  road. 


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The  following  table  will  show  the  increase  : 


Systems. 


As  now  operated  with 

3  car  trains  

As  now  operated  with 

4  car  trains  

Proposed  plan  4  tracks 

and  4  cars  


Intervals 
between 
trains. 
Seconds. 


80 
80 
40 


Number 
of  cars  per 
train. 


Number 

Number  of 

Passengers  carried  per 
hour. 

of  trains 
per  hour. 

cars  per 
hour. 

Seated  42  in 
car. 

Seated  and 
standing  126 
per  car. 

45 

135 

5,670 

17  OIO 

45 

180 

7,560 

22,68o 

go 

360 

15,120 

45.300 

The  cost  of  this  improved  system  is  estimated  by 
the  Chief  Engineer,  as  follows  : 

Rectangular  system  four  tracks 

N.  Y.  Station.       Brooklyn.  Total. 

Real  Estate  for  Stations,     none.         none.  none. 

Store  Yards  for  75  cars   $168,000 

Station   Buildings  $140,000    $120,000  260,000 

75  New   Cars   300,000 

New  Plant  and  Machinery   45,000 

Total   $773,000 

Your  Committee  have  no  doubt  that  this  improved 
rectangular  system  is  the  one  to  be  first  carried  out, 
and  used  until  the  traffic  outgrows  it. 

There  is  nothing  new  or  experimental  about  it.  Its  safety 
has  been  tested  by  over  four  years'  experience  and  the 
conveyance  of  ninety  million  passengers,  in  more  than 
700,000  trains  without  accident  to  life  or  limb  with  the 
exception  of  the  loss  of  a  foot  by  a  passenger  in 
December,  1885. 


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It  requires  only  slight  alterations  of  the  present 
machinery  and  the  alterations  to  the  tracks,  platforms 
and  buildings  can  be  carried  out  gradually  and  paid 
for  out  of  the  earnings  of  the  Bridge,  as  in  the  past. 
These  changes  will  not  interfere  in  the  least  with  the 
traffic  upon  the  Bridge. 

The  safety  appliances  recommended  by  the  Board 
of  Experts  can  be  equally  well  applied  to  this  system 
as  to  the  circulating  system,  should  it  be  decided  that 
they  are  needed. 

So  also  a  second  set  of  overhead  tracks  to  carry  the 
trains  of  the  Brooklyn  Elevated  Railways  can  be  ap- 
plied to  one  system  as  well  as  another  if  they  are 
wanted. 

It  now  only  remains  to  consider  what  shall  be  done 
in  the  future,  when  this  system  is  outgrown. 

The  number  of  passengers  carried  in  1887,  by  three- 
car  trains  in  eighty  seconds  apart  was  27,940,000.  With 
the  same  average  number  of  passengers  per  car  the 
yearly  number  that  can  be  carried  will  be  about  75,000 
000. 

According  to  the  estimate  of  the  Board  of  Experts 
this  number  will  not  be  reached  until  1895,  or  seven 
years  from  now.  Up  to  that  time  this  proposed  sys- 
tem will  answer  with  an  expenditure  of  $773,000. 

It  seems  to  your  Committee  that  it  would  be  a  more 
prudent  and  conservative  course  to  put  this  system  in 
operation  and  postpone  the  large  expenditure  until  the 
traffic  demands  it. 

In  this   age  of  inventions  there  is  no  knowing  what 


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the  next  seven  years  may  produce,  and  if  the  Bridge 
Trustees  are  not  hampered  by  a  present  expenditure 
of  nearly  six  million  dollars,  they  will  be  ready  for  the 
best  thing  that  offers. 

We  now  recommend  that  the  President  and  Chief 
Engineer  be  instructed : 

First — To  put  four-car  trains  in  operation  on  the 
present  system. 

Second — To  prepare  for  the  doubling  of  this  system  as 
above  described  and  shown  in  plans  A  and  B,  and  put 
it  in  operation  as  soon  as  the  needs  of  the  traffic  shall 
demand  it. 

And  your  Terminal  Committee  now  ask  to  be  dis- 
charged. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted, 

T.  C.  CLARKE.C.  E. 
JAMES  HOWELL,  President. 

C om7nit  tee. 

Brooklyn,  April  17,  1888. 


